Modder uses Claude AI to code new BIOS that gets obscure all P-core Intel Bartlett Lake CPUs running on a Z790 motherboard

Intel's Bartlett Lake CPU is a bit of a niche offering, mainly aimed at edge, embedded, and networking applications rather than consumer PCs. But what with its pure P-core engineering, it's kinda intriguing. And yet not compatible with desktop motherboards. Until now, that is.

An enterprising modder has managed to get a 12-core Bartlett Lake chip up and running on an Asus Z790-AYW OC. But arguably, the really interesting bit is how it was done with the help of Claude AI (via Tom's Hardware).

We're not entirely clear on all the details, but on the Overlock.net forums, user Kryptonfly reports that a Bartlett Lake Intel Core 9 273PQE chip with 12 Performance cores is "recognized" by the Z790 board and that "Claude edited 100% of the bios, no module replacement at all."

Exactly what prompts Kryptonfly used with Claude aren't known, but the process did involve uploading BIOS files. Apparently, the fact that the Asus Z790-AYW OC's BIOS file size is only 16 MB meant that Kryptonfly could do the whole thing using the free version of Claude, which is pretty remarkable.

This isn't a flawless implementation of Bartlett Lake on a consumer motherboard, though. There are still issues, such as the Bartlett Lake CPU's inability to boot into the BIOS, forcing a CPU swap to make BIOS settings changes.

The modded BIOS also now doesn't seem to work with some desktop CPUs for which the motherboard was originally designed. But the main point is that the Claude-coded BIOS does allow the Bartlett Lake Intel Core 9 273PQE to boot into Windows on a consumer Z790 motherboard. And that is pretty wild.

For the record, the Intel Core 9 273PQE chip has 12 Raptor Cove Performance cores and thus more P-cores than you can get on any desktop Intel CPU, which top out at eight. Oh, and no Efficient cores at all.

It uses the same LGA 1700 socket as Alder Lake and Raptor Lake chips up until 14th Gen CPUs like the Intel Core i9 14900K, which is why it's at least physically compatible with a Z790 motherboard right out of the box.

It's also an interesting achievement in the context of the broader negativity around AI slop. For instance, AMD's AI boss recently said, "Claude cannot be trusted to perform complex engineering tasks," which is rather damning.

According to that story, the quality of Claude Code's output is actually deteriorating, and the cause is suspected, at least in some quarters, to be related to Anthropic capping token usage. In other words, the model isn't necessarily broken or degrading, but it's getting increasingly expensive to run, and Anthropic may be limiting GPU access to save money.

Whatever, plenty of old adages around tools, tool makers and tool usage probably apply here. And at least for now, AI is certainly but a tool, not an omnipotent silicon-based deity. But it seems it can at least help you drop in a CPU that was never intended for your motherboard.